After several rejections by Nintendo, it is now coming: an improved switch – with a 7-inch OLED panel, mind you, and not with more power, as was previously speculated. However, 4K and DLSS were wishful thinking due to the lack of suitable Nvidia chips. The Switch OLED is above all a better mobile game console.
The previously speculated Switch Pro with upgraded hardware, 4K image output and DLSS support for AI-supported upscaling to higher resolutions is for the time being history with yesterday's announcement of the Switch OLED. It cannot be ruled out that Nintendo will present a more powerful “Switch 2” in the coming years, but in the here and now only the Switch OLED is a reality. Many users seem to have hoped for more power for the switch, as can be seen in the rather restrained reactions to the new model in the ComputerBase forum.
On which Tegra should DLSS run?
Realistically speaking, a “Switch Pro” with 4K and DLSS was rather wishful thinking. So far there is not even a suitable Tegra chip from Nvidia that could run DLSS. The Shield uses (since the 2019 upgrade) the drilled out Tegra X1 + (“Mariko”) with Maxwell GPU, which doesn't know what to do with DLSS. Although tensor cores are not necessarily required for DLSS, Nvidia has only offered upscaling since the much more powerful RTX 2000 graphics cards with Turing. And since DLSS 2.0, the tensor cores have been used that are not available in the Tegra environment or at least not in chips suitable for the switch.
With Volta there were tensor cores for the first time, but such a GPU can only be found in the Nvidia Xavier at the earliest, which has so far been mainly used in areas such as automotive and robotics. There are no consumer products with a Xavier SoC on the market. But: In the smaller NX configurations with 10 and 15 watts, the chip could potentially be accommodated in a new switch. Newer Nvidia SoCs such as Orin with Ampere or Atlan with Ampere-Next GPU are oversized in their configurations for the automotive segment and completely unsuitable for a mobile game console like the Switch, where Nintendo still keeps an eye on acceptable battery life must.
In stationary operation in the dock, the new switch does not have any advantages over the previous one, which Nintendo continues to offer – with the exception of the LAN connection. The maximum resolution in this mode remains at 1080p60. Nvidia's own shield with the same Tegra X1 + can handle image output in 2160p60 and AI upscaling for films and series.
The new switch is on the go actually better
The Switch OLED is therefore primarily a better mobile game console. The larger OLED display should deliver significantly better values for colors and contrast, hopefully the brightness is also at a high level. And the new kickstand on the back, which is a bit reminiscent of the Surface devices from Microsoft, gives the player significantly more freedom when setting up the console and choosing the viewing angle in the car, plane, train or just on the table. The fiddly construction of the previous kickstand was a nuisance from the start and is finally history with the new model.
Is the Nintendo Switch OLED a successful upgrade?
- Yes, absolutely, plan to buy with availability
- Well implemented, but won't buy it
- I had hoped for more
- A total disappointment
- Abstain (show result)
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